Mikey of Legend

Week 4: Making a Trailer That Sells the Game

Learning objectives: Produce a launch-quality trailer, building on the Course 2/3 trailer rather than starting from nothing.

Estimated time: 7-9 hours

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Introduction

This week's trailer has a different job than the Course 2/3 trailer: it's the single asset most likely to decide whether a stranger scrolling past your Steam page clicks further or moves on.

Lesson breakdown

  • Lesson 1: Trailer Structure That Works - Open with your strongest hook, escalate variety through the middle, and close with a clear title card.
  • Lesson 2: What to Actually Show - Use real, representative gameplay covering your core loop, a systems moment, and a narrative beat.
  • Lesson 3: Capturing Clean Footage - Record above your export target, hide debug overlays, and shoot multiple takes of every planned shot.
  • Lesson 4: Basic Editing Techniques - Cut to music, escalate pacing through the middle, and keep the whole edit to 30-60 seconds.
  • Lesson 5: Different Edits for Different Contexts - Build separate edits for your Steam page, a YouTube upload, and short-form cutdowns.

Try this now

  • Open with your strongest hook, escalate variety through the middle, and close with a clear title card.
  • Record above your export target, hide debug overlays, and shoot multiple takes of every planned shot.
  • Build separate edits for your Steam page, a YouTube upload, and short-form cutdowns.

How this week works

This week's trailer has a different job than the Course 2/3 trailer: it's the single asset most likely to decide whether a stranger scrolling past your Steam page clicks further or moves on.

Video segment plan

Use one focused segment per part, then pause to implement and validate before continuing.

Implementation evidence

Keep short notes, screenshots, and links to what you published so this week's work is reusable in later polish passes.

Interactive lesson parts (6-10 min each)

Part 1: Trailer Structure That Works

Watch Build Check
6 min Part video
Video part 1: Trailer Structure That Works

Complete the focused task for this part before moving on.

Open with your strongest hook, escalate variety through the middle, and close with a clear title card.

Part 2: What to Actually Show

Watch Build Check
7 min Part video
Video part 2: What to Actually Show

Apply and validate this technique in your project artifact.

Use real, representative gameplay covering your core loop, a systems moment, and a narrative beat.

Part 3: Capturing Clean Footage

Watch Build Check
7 min Part video
Video part 3: Capturing Clean Footage

Cross-check this part against your actual store page and channels.

Record above your export target, hide debug overlays, and shoot multiple takes of every planned shot.

Part 4: Basic Editing Techniques

Watch Build Check
8 min Part video
Video part 4: Basic Editing Techniques

Draft or build the concrete piece this part asks for.

Cut to music, escalate pacing through the middle, and keep the whole edit to 30-60 seconds.

Part 5: Different Edits for Different Contexts

Watch Build Check
9 min Part video
Video part 5: Different Edits for Different Contexts

Finish with a validation step and one clear next action.

Build separate edits for your Steam page, a YouTube upload, and short-form cutdowns.

Hands-on milestone

  • A finished 30-60 second launch trailer covering core loop, systems, and narrative moments
  • The trailer uploaded to your Steam page and to YouTube
  • At least one short-form vertical cutdown published to a short-form platform

Weekly checkpoint

Use this checkpoint marker to confirm this week's deliverables are actually done, not just planned.

Checkpoint checklist Week 4 
# Checkpoint for Week 4: Making a Trailer That Sells the Game
[ ] A finished 30-60 second launch trailer covering core loop, systems, and narrative moments
[ ] The trailer uploaded to your Steam page and to YouTube
[ ] At least one short-form vertical cutdown published to a short-form platform